Glorious sounds soar above season of economic gloom

December 27, 2012|John von Rhein | Classical music critic

No musical news story in 2012 drew greater media attention, inside and outside Chicago, than the strike that silenced the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 48 hours in late September. The cliffhanger was resolved just in time for the CSO to fulfill a scheduled tour.

The labor action, the first work stoppage at the orchestra since 1991, resulted in the musicians' winning small increases in compensation. But it did not answer the larger question of how financial pressures brought on by mounting deficits and rising costs will affect what CSO bass player and musicians' Negotiating Committee Chairman Stephen Lester said is "the future of this institution and its commitment to excellence."

The strike amounted to a dramatic local manifestation of widespread national contention between labor and management over the worsening imbalance between revenues and expenses plaguing symphony orchestras amid a generally weak arts economy.

The $1.3 million deficit posted by the CSO in fiscal 2012 — despite gains in ticket sales and contributions — was a drop in the proverbial bucket compared with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's $20 million shortfall and with the Philadelphia Orchestra's projected $10 million deficit for fiscal 2013. At this writing, the Minnesota Orchestra musicians remain locked out, leaving the rest of the season in doubt.

The current "very low level of trust and understanding" Lester cited as existing between the players and the CSO Association remains a wound that won't soon heal, despite the orchestra's undimmed artistic luster and the cordial, ever-deepening relationship the players enjoy with music director Riccardo Muti. The strength of that relationship was tested not only at home but also during the orchestra and Muti's tours of Russia and Italy in April, and New York and Mexico in October. These latest visits abroad added significant triumphs to the CSO's distinguished touring history.

Nearly every performance produced under Muti's exacting eye and ear commanded attention this year, not least the two big choral works that enlisted the Chicago Symphony Chorus: Orff's "Carmina Burana" in January (repeated in September at a free concert in Millennium Park and again in October at Carnegie Hall), and Cherubini's noble Requiem in C Minor, in March.

To weather the general economic storm, Lyric Opera withdrew $3.8 million from its cushiony cash reserves, a planned withdrawal that allowed the company to break even in fiscal 2012. Strong subscription sales and gains in fundraising gave General Director Anthony Freud the backstop he needed to move ahead with several artistic initiatives. The biggest of these, announced earlier this year, will be the world premiere in 2015 of composer Jimmy Lopez's operatic treatment of Ann Patchett's best-selling novel, "Bel Canto."

Lyric greeted spring 2012 with a vocally resplendent new production of Handel's "Rinaldo," and launched the fall season with a powerful new staging of Richard Strauss' "Elektra" and a sturdy "Simon Boccanegra" that got the drop on the 2013 Verdi bicentenary.

Brian Dickie ended his 13-year tenure as general director of Chicago Opera Theater with musically and dramatically gripping productions of the rarely heard Shostakovich operetta "Moscow, Cheryomushki" and Handel's neglected "Teseo," which completed COT's trilogy of Medea operas. Dickie's successor, Andreas Mitisek, promised to take the company in new directions, but local opera fans must wait until spring to find out what those directions are.

Ravinia music director James Conlon presided over semi-staged CSO concert versions of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" and "Idomeneo" that adhered to the high level one has come to expect from his operatic forays at the orchestra's summer retreat. Song recitals by the splendid baritones Matthias Goerne and Gerald Finley added further musical luster to the season.

The year's most impressive new addition to the local concert scene was not a performer or a piece of music, but a building — the sleekly modern, multipurpose, $114 million Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. The facility's 474-seat Performance Hall got its classical music baptism with a wonderful concert by the Italian period instrument ensemble Europa Galante. The hall's physical and acoustical intimacy proved a perfect match, making it a venue serious concertgoers will want to make a beeline to in 2013 and beyond.

Chicago classical music organizations love to celebrate anniversaries, and the year brought several such celebrations.